Former BCCI regime mired in $900,000 'snoopgate' payment

The issue came to the fore at the Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) in Mumbai. Several senior members, including Saurashtra Cricket Association President Niranjan Shah, had requested the Board to investigate the transaction made under the Shivlal Yadav regime in 2014, reported espncricinfo.

Former off-spinner Yadav had replaced N Srinivasan at the helm after the latter had resigned the post following the Supreme Court's instructions asking him to step down during the IPL betting scandal involving the Chennai Super Kings in 2013.

Ajay Shirke and G Ganga Raju appointed to the two-man panel promised to unearth the motivations behind the payment. "There is a payment that has been made to an agency. We have to find out what is this payment, where it has been made, to whom it has been made, for what purpose it has been made, who sanctioned it, who approved it," Shirke told ESPNcricinfo.

Shirke, however, refused to go into the exact reasons for the payment at such an early stage. "It is not proper unless it is conclusively proved. We will find out what that agency was hired for: whether there is any contract, whether they were deliverables and if they were delivered, and to whom they were delivered," said Shirke.

It is learnt that the members had raised concerns regarding the incident prior to the AGM, but the concerns had remained unattended. "Thakur told the members on Monday he had written to both Yadav as well as Thakur but neither responded," Shirke said to espncricnfo.

Yadav, however, had admitted to receiving a letter from BCCI secretary Anurag Thakur regarding the incident. "I have received a mail from Anurag seeking details about the payment to a UK-based IT company and I have written back to him saying I am not aware of any such payment. During my tenure, the payment was not brought to my notice, nor was I aware of it. I have asked Sanjay if any such payment was made at all. I have no further information on this," Yadav had told Mumbai Mirror in May.

The incident is expected to take the center stage in coming weeks after the impetus from a Shashank Manohar led BCCI that seems intent on refurbishing its image and cleanse the system in India.